2.1 The Structure of Paragraph
What is paragraph?
A paragraph is a basic unit of organization in writing in which a group of related sentences develop main idea. A paragraph can be as short as one sentence or as long as ten sentences. The number of sentences is unimportant; however the paragraph should be long enough to develop the main idea clearly.
A paragraph has three major structural parts; topic sentences, supporting sentences and a concluding sentence. The topic sentence is the main idea of the paragraph. It not only names the topic of the paragraph, but it also limits the topic to one or two areas that can be discussed completely in the space of a single paragraph. The Specific area is called the controlling idea
Supporting sentences develop the topic sentence that is they explain the topic sentence by giving reason, examples, facts, statistics and quotation. The concluding sentence signals the end of the paragraph and leaves the reader with important points to remember. A good paragraph also has the elements of unity and coherence.
Unity means that you discuss only one main idea in a paragraph. The main idea is stated in the topic sentence, and then each and every supporting sentence develops the idea. For example, you announce in your topic sentence that you are going to discuss two important characteristic of gold, discuss only those. Don’t discuss anything else such as the price of the gold, the history of the gold or gold mining.
Coherence means that you paragraph is easy to read and understand because (1) your supporting sentences are in some kind of logical order, and (2) your ideas are connected by the use of appropriate transition signals. For example in the paragraph about gold, there two main supporting ideas; gold is beautiful, and gold is useful. Each of these supporting ideas is discussed, one after the other, and example is given for each one. This is one kind of logical order. Furthermore, the relationship between the ideas is clearly shown by using appropriate transition words and phrases such as first of all, the second important characteristic, for example and in conclusion.
In summary, a well-written paragraph contains five elements; a topic sentence, supporting sentences, a concluding sentences, unity and coherence.